THe MOUTH OF THe TURTLe T HE three women came out of the theatre with the crowd and stopped under the marquee long enough to light their cigarettes. It was a late afternoon in October and a cold wind off the river caught them the in- stant they stepped onto the sidewalk. Each of them rearranged her mink coat. They were from Chicago. "What was the name of it?" Helen asked. " 'The Mouth of the Turtle,' " Ruth said. " 'The Voice of the Turtle,' 'The Voice of the Turtle,' not 'The Mouth of the Turtle,' " Mildred said. "Let's go to that place where Mr. Fowler took us for dinner and have a drink," Helen said. " I b d ' 0..." R h twas anne, wasn t It r ut said. "I guess it must have been banned," Hefen said. "But if it was banned, how could we go and see it?" "It was banned in Boston," Mildred saido "I don't think there was anything dirty about it," Ruth said. "1 think it was a beautiful play." They hailed a cab and gave the driv- er the addres's of a Fifty-second Street restauran t. They found three stools at the bar and they each ordered Scotch- and-water with a twist of lemon peel, a drink they had learned to like since their arrival in Nevl York. The bar was crowded and "noisy, but the women were still too deeply moved by the play they had seen to notice their surround- Ings. "Do you think the girl did right to do what she did with the sergeant?" Ruth asked the others. '.cOf course it was right," Mildred said emphatically. "Even if they never got married it was right, it was so beau- O f I " t1 U . "I would have done it myself," Hel- en said quietly. "We're only human, after all." They were all women in their late forties. Ruth was fat, Mildred had a long, square face, and Helen's pretti- ness was fading, but the play had re- minded them of their youth, when their waists were small and their hair was fair and the night air was power- fuL Each of them could remember a man she had denied a quarter of a cen- tury ago, and eacþ of them regretted it. "I think I'll telephone Charlie to- night," Mildred said. The play had made her lonely as well as reminiscent. , ' . , " I. , '- it \ , ..; " ..\: : : \ - .. ':I!!__ _ : I.:. ;1->:':::'. :-.:: f! .-.. == -=.:::. .._-.- :-- ".. .. .............. -- . .i:l V - r ..... ---- 4 .... · . :...... . .... ..:' .I -::- roJ Þ-t'- . . . . ' She felt suddenly that she had spent too much of her husband's money, and the thought of his generosity in letting her come East on a shopping trip with her two friends filled her with sadness. "I may call Harry," Helen said. " I d ' h . k I d o" on t t In want any Inner, Ruth said. "Another Scotch-and-water, Gene," she told the bartender, reading his name off the jacket he wore. "We've qeen every place on our list but that French place," He]en said. "I'd sort of like to go thereo" "Just three women together isn't much fun," Ruth said. "That's the way 1 feel," Mildred said. "I'd just as soon have a few more drinks and then go back to the hotel and have them bring something up to the room." "Another Scotch-and-water ," Helen said. "Don't look now," Mildred told Ruth, "hut there's a sergeant and he looks just like the sergeant in the play." The three women turned and saw three young sergeants standing a little way down the bar. Each of them wore several cellophane-covered rIbbons. "He does look something like Elliott Nugent," Ruth whispered. "I think he's b tter-Iooking," l'vlil- d d O d " H ' " re sal. e s younger. "I think that's the strangest coinci- dence 1 ever heard of," Helen said. "We were just talking about sergeants, weren't we, and there they are." "Let's buy them a drink," Ruth said. "I don't know whether we should or not," :Mildred said. "They might think we're forward." "We only live once," Helen said. ""T e may never come to New York alone again. Do you realize that?" "They might think we're · cheap," Mildred said. "It's wartime," Helen said. "E verybod y speaks to every- body in wartime. \" ou ask them, Ruth." "No, you ask them," Ruth said. " Y ' d o h " ou re stan Ing next to t em, Helen said. "All right," Ruth said. "I'll ask them." She leaned forward over the bar so that the sergeants could see her. "We're from out of town and I guess you're from out of town, too," she said, "and we'd like to buy you a drink. We're from Chicago." "We'll drink anything you buy us," one of the sergeants said pleasantly. "M v name is Ruth," Ruth said. . 27 "These are my friends, Ylildred and Helen. " "My name is Sergeant Bellows," the sergeant said. "This is Sergeant Mitchell and Sergeant Spencer." "We're from Chicago," Mildred called down the bar. "They know that already," Helen said. "Give the sergeants whatever they're drinking," Ruth told the bartender. " I ' " h b d O d " b m sorry, t e arten er saI, ut you're not allowed to buy drinks." "What do you mean, we're not al- lowed to buy drinks?" Mildred said. " I ' ". h O d m very sorry, t e manager sal . He had been watching them and was nO T standing behind them. "I'm very sorry, but you're not allowed to buy drinks for anyone outside your own " party. "Y ou mean we're not welcome here? Is that 'what you mean?" Ruth said, and she colored. . "I never heard of such a thing," Mildred said. "1 always thought New York was a friendly place." "Shut up," Helen said. "Shut up and let's get out of here." They left the bar and started for the door. Ruth spoke to the sergeants. "We'd still like, to give you boys a drink," she said, "but we're not welcome here any more, so if you want a drink, come up to our suiteo It's 2316." She gave them the name of one of the big hotels and fol- lowed her friends out of the restaurant. " I DON'T think they'll come," Hel- en said after they had been waIt- ing in their hotel suite for three-quarters of an hour. "I know they'll come," Ruth said. "I could just tell by the way he looked at me. They're just as lone- some as we are, the poor boys. " "Funny things happen in wartime, don't they?" Mil- dred said. "They looked like such nice boys to me. The blond one reminded me of a boy I used to know in Wichita. I guess they must be lonesome." i\ few minutes later the doorbell rang and they heard men laughing and talk- . . h O d " Th ' h , " lng In t e corrI or. ey re ere 0 Mildred shouted. Helen made for the bathroom, where she went to work on her hair and her makeup. Ruth got a bottle of Scotch out of the pantry and Mildred opened the door. "Here we are!" one of the sergeants shouted. "i\nd where in hell is the booze?" The three of them pushed past Mildred into the living roomo Sergeant Bellows went ,